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Football

Sanogo joins Palace on loan

LONDON, January 13 – Arsenal striker Yaya Sanogo has joined Premier League rivals Crystal Palace on loan for the rest of the season.

The 21-year-old has only played six times for the Gunners this season, but did manage his first competitive goal for the club in their 2-1 Champions League win over Borussia Dortmund.

Sanogo joined Arsenal from Auxerre at the start of last season but made limited appearances and most of his impact came in their victorious FA Cup run, albeit without him breaking his goalscoring duck.

He will hope to add firepower to a Palace squad that has scored only 22 goals in 21 Premier League games so far this season – their leading scorer is midfielder Mile Jedinak with five.

Sanogo is Alan Pardew’s first signing since taking over at Selhurst Park last week, and he said: “He’s a young player with tremendous promise, somebody that I have tracked personally and this club has too so that fitted well.

“We have given him an opportunity, he needs to play more games and I think he’s ready for that and he proved that at Arsenal. It’s tough to get in their team but he’s closer to the starting action with us.”

And the player admitted moving to south London appealed to him as he was looking to get more playing time after struggling behind Olivier Giroud and the other offensive options at the Emirates.

He said: “When the Arsenal manager spoke with me about Crystal Palace I was very happy because I want to play more games.

“I think Palace are a good team, I watched the game against Tottenham and it was a great performance from the guys. I hope I can help the club have a successful second half of the season.”